Recalescence
by Daiyu Amaya
Summary: Clint and Bruce on mission, only they get a visitor in their safe house
1. Chapter 1

Recalescence

"Excuse me, have you seen my papa?" I looked down at the dirty little girl. Her father? "What's he look like?" She blinked a little confused I would be betting. "He's got hair like mine, but darker kind of...um. He was wearing a suit..." She pronounced suit like suet. I'd seen the man, he'd rushed pass me at least two, three minutes. Had he lost her, I bet her mother would be furious with him for that. "Yeah, he went that way." She smiled and thanked me before running off.

"Hey, there you are." I turned and smiled at Clint, "Yep here I am." He led me to the safe house that we were going to use for the night. I couldn't get the little girl out of my head, where had I seen her before? Because, I was good at remembering faces-I had to be so that people couldn't follow me around. I knew her face, maybe it was because most kids still had their cute chubby cheeks that they were just growing out of at that age. "You look serious, are you aright?" I nodded to Clint's question.

"Thought I saw someone I knew-nothing to do with what we're doing. It was a kid." Clint frowned; "The kids are the ones you've got to watch out for though." There was a story behind that. Natasha had mentioned that she had been pretty young when she started being a spy…A flash of a memory slipping past my minds eye, a little girl climbing out a window and Natasha coming towards me.

"What is it with kids and spies?" Clint grinned; "I was thinking more along the lines of kids and assassins. I met one not that long ago, sprightly thing. Blond curls and a cute smile-right before she shoots you." Blond curls? Oh crap; "Blond and blue eyed?" Clint's eyes widened at my comment. "Yeah, oh god-tell me you didn't see a kid round eight or nine years old with that coloring?" I nodded and he cursed.

She was after a man and hadn't really spared me much of a look, but if she was an assassin she would have been paying more attention. "Crap, Bruce where did you see Sophia?" I frowned; "Right before you found me." He took a deep breath, before letting it out. "Did she talk to you?" I nodded, "Yes, she asked me about a man that ran pass me." Clint looked relieved. "That's good, we weren't her mark. I hated the time I was-her and her partner are a bitch to deal with."

"Hey, I resent that comment, we are not a 'bitch'." A youthful voice called out. The young girl! Clint pulled up his gun and aimed at Sophia. "What the hell are you?" Clint managed to half shout before he was slumping forward. I stood, there wasn't much I could do for him with the threat of this little girl looming. "Aw, I thought he knew better…" She pouted and climbed the rest of the way into the room from the window she'd been hanging in.

"I'm Maria Cooper, at your service." She even curtsied, the gleam in her eyes looked a little artificial though, why was that? She glanced at Clint and then back at me. "Have you got a sharpie? I want to draw on his face." Alright, I was dealing with a direct little imp here. "Sure, but you have to answer a question first." She nodded and waited patiently while I thought out how to ask her. Well, if she was going to be direct I might as well be too.

"Why are you here?" She grinned at me; "I saw you earlier and I know you're an Avenger-know you hang with this one. So, I followed. I figured I'd be able to pay him back for the bullet he gave me." Had Clint actually shot a child? Even as apparently messed up as this one was? I didn't know what happened so maybe I should just stay out of that one. "Alright here." I tossed her the sharpie from the nightstand, she in good faith set her gun and a knife down on the bed before setting off on marking Clint's face with a rather adorable bunny.

"How old are you Maria?" She chuckled; "Oh, I'm ten. I know I look younger, but in my line of work that's a good thing." So, ten years old and an assassin. Why was our world so messed up? "He called you Sophia?" She nodded; "Yeah, my code name. Can't go around telling people my real name." I suppose that was true enough even though she had decided to tell me and maybe not Clint, I wondered where her partner was though. Were they watching all of this?

"Will you tell Miss Romanoff I say hello? I met her and stole from her, but I thought she was almost as cool as my partner." It was a small world after all? "Sure." Maria pulled away from Clint, her bunny had flowers around it-the bunny and its flowers were on Clint's cheek. He was going to be really angry at himself-If Maria had malicious intent he could have been dead, if she attacked either of us he could have died honestly.

"Alrighty, I'm all done. Have a good day Mister Banner, oh-and expect to see me again in the near future!" She picked up her weapons and jumped out the window, I could hear the thump, thump, thump of her little feet on the tin roof next to the safe house. Great, that really was the last thing I wanted-to be attacked by a child who had no chance against the other guy. Clint groaned and lifted his head; "What happened?"

Clint looked so dazed that I genuinely worried about what the heck Maria had used on him. "Your little girl assassin decided to say hello." Clint looked around, and of course Maria was long gone now. "She say anything?" I nodded with a grin. "You might want to look at your face." He rushed towards the bathroom as well as he could on wobbly feet and nearly screeched at the sight of a bunny on his face.

"God damn kid! She tell you anything while she was doodling on my face?" I nodded; "She said that we would see each other again soon, I hope she really rethinks that one." Clint nodded; "I doubt she would attack you, she's smarter than that." I hoped he was right, because otherwise the world would be safer without one more assassin and I might lose it.


	2. Part Two!

**Recalescence 2**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Avengers or John Rain (Marvel and Barry Eisler respectively) though Maria is mine and she is a blast to write!

**A/N:** Due to requests-here's a second bit! lol hope you enjoy! If you don't well just say so and I'll fiddle with the story!

(Though hopefully you'll tell me why you didn't like it and what you would like to see!)

"Hey, you again-why are you in here?" I looked up at the air vent, Maria was dangling out of it part way, I really hoped she didn't fall down. "I should be asking you that." She grinned; "I told you you'd see me again didn't I?" Of course she wouldn't have asked me what I was doing if she had known we would meet here, there was something else that she knew would bring her closer to us-maybe we would see her in America?

"Is the door locked?" I nodded; "Yeah, I was...well looking around when the door slammed behind me." Maria nodded, she threw down a rope-there was no way I'd fit in the vents! But, she was shimming down as I thought that. "I'll unlock it for you then-though don't tell Clint you saw me, he'd throw a fit." I had to smother a smile, because he had freaked out about her-she may have been an assassin, but all she had going for her so far to my knowledge was surprise, and if she didn't have that then she was good as gone.

"Do you know if there are any targets outside the door?" I shook my head, "I could always yell." She rolled her eyes; "And get caught? That's smart." I looked down at her and she was grinning; "Has anyone tell you that you've got a smart mouth?" Maria shrugged; "No, they don't-they say I've made a deal with the devil." And she was using a set of pick locks-the door creaked. She froze and backed away.

Looking to me she smiled; "Later." and she was back up the rope faster than I could say huh. I turned as I heard the door behind me open, Clint staring in at me-kind of in a way that made me think of when Betty disapproved of something I was doing. Not that I really wanted that kind of reminder of course, but seriously it was a little eerie. "How'd you end up trapped?" I shook my head and made my way out of the room.

"So he's the big guy, that's kind of a surprise-he seems so nice." A young voice, but what happened? The Big guy make a mess? I opened my eyes and Maria looked down at me. "Hey sleepy head, I saw your temper tantrum-way worse then mine for sure!" I chuckled, well there was that. "What are you doing here Maria?" She smiled; "Tony wanted me to keep an eye on you-said it was in my best interest." and yet somehow that really didn't surprise me as much as it should have, of course Tony had an assassin tailing me and Clint… But, how had he gotten a hold of her in the first place? Why was he paying her to tail us? Didn't he trust Clint?

Maria had managed to make some Tom Ka Gai with rice and shrimp. I would have expected something European by the looks of her but, she'd learned from a pro by the way it all tasted. She'd grown up in Thailand or at least had been there long enough to learn how to cook. "Might as well eat up, it's not going to hurt you after all." And she shoveled some rice into her mouth-no table manners what so ever. Didn't she learn? Wouldn't it be harder to spot an assassin child if they had manners?

I brushed off the thought; "So, Maria-the man you were after when we first met. Who was he and why were you after him?" Maria looked up rice stuck to her face; "He was part of the group you and Clint were looking into, he was going to bomb the embassy." Well, shit. That would have been pretty hard on everyone for getting out of the country and even harder for us. That still didn't explain why she was working for Tony either.

"Kid, you're gross." Clint said before taking another bite of food. Maria frowned at Clint, didn't she know she had rice all over her face? "Says you. You've got rice on your face too!" Clint brushed his face and in fact he did have rice stuck to his face. She grinned at him; "Anyhow, Tony found out something about the group you two were hunting-They had a serum, not sure if it works or not."

She paused to take a bite; "But, it turns things into monsters. Shield didn't know, and Tony didn't want to go through them." So he hired her…But that still didn't make sense, how would Tony have known about her? "Yeah right kid, tell the truth." She frowned at Clint. "My partner and Tony know each other, and Tony helped him avoid suspicion, since technically my partner shouldn't be in the U.S. and so he owed Tony."

So why wasn't the partner doing this and not her? "Kid, the last I heard your partner quit the life, he's retired." Maria nodded; "After we lost Harry yeah, John retired-he is in his fifties after all. He would have had to quit soon anyway. That's why I'm handling this and not him." Retired assassin, well I suppose that wasn't too strange-everyone retired at some point or another. "So Tony was okay with that?"

Maria grinned; "He doesn't know it's me he hired, he thinks it's John." Misdirection, it wouldn't be easy to pull wool over Tony's eyes-he was a genius after all. "Kid, he knows-there's no way you tricked him." Maria chuckled; "I didn't, John did." Of course her partner would still help her, she was a child after all…even if she was an assassin too, as scary as that was I wasn't really that shocked. Natasha and that little girl she hired on to get me to come to that building… "Oh, would you tell Miss Romanoff hello for me?"

I rolled my eyes, she'd asked me that the first time I saw her. "I already did, she flipped out. She wouldn't tell me what happened between you two though." Maria laughed; "Oh, I just used my bunny tazer on her is all. She had files, I killed my target and found he didn't still have them-realized that the pretty woman I'd passed must have them and I went after her for them." Ah, that made sense then. Nat wouldn't want us to know about that perceived failure.

But, Maria was a tricky little devil. I doubted most people found her scary until it was too late. "Oh really, bet Nat's on her way here to get you." Maria shrugged; "She can try." I noticed movement from the corner of my eye and nearly grinned, Natasha's red hair really stood out. Then Nat was rushing forward towards Maria who gave me a maniacal grin and ducked under the table at the last moment. Nat, missing her by fingertips.

Clint squawked and Maria appeared on the other side of the table, a gun trained on Clint. "Hi miss widow!" Natasha looked like she wanted to rip this child apart, there had to be more than what Maria said that happened between them. "Sophia, let my partner go." Maria nodded and holstered her gun in a thigh holster. Well, that explained the fluffy skirt at least. "How are you?" Maria asked, Nat made a face; "Better than when you attacked me."

Maria giggled; "Hey, all for the job-I think you're awesome!" Nat stared blankly at her before breaking into laughter. "Oh, really? I was thinking the same about you." Surprise! I never thought I would hear that out of Nat's mouth. "Would you like some food miss widow?" Nat smiled; "Sure, what'd you make?" Maria brightened and came around the table towards the stove, "Tom Ka Gai with shrimp and rice." Nat came over and didn't attack Maria. "Sounds good, by the way call me Natasha." Maria looked up at her and smiled; "Maria."


End file.
